TEN NO KATA - 天の形
Recently I taught this kata on a Zoom session to some students from different countries. It was a great session with the focus being on this kata. Unfortunately many schools and clubs don't teach 'Ten No Kata' anymore so my goal was for them to learn but also understand how important 'Ten No Kata' can be, not just for beginners but black belts as well. It's great for developing our kihon, but more importantly, what I love about it is that you can make this kata very personal depending on your goal. Apart from developing kihon, you might want to use it to work on heel connection or moving from your centre. Maybe it's simpler, and you want to work on your posture or look at it from a kumite aspect. I would definitely recommend learning this kata as its a great tool for developing most aspects karate.
I would say that once you have learned this kata, develop it into YOUR karate. Add "flavour" to it if you will. When teaching this kata, I always make a point that if I was to do it side by side with a student or another black belt, it shouldn't look the same. The order of the techniques should be the same, yes, but it should be my Ten No Kata based on what I want to achieve from it and their Ten No Kata based on what they want to achieve. Its important as well to be mindful that we are all different. For example I like to use Fudo Dachi but another Karate-ka might use Zenkutsu Dachi, and that's absolutely fine. It's about the individual and what they feel works best for them.
Developed by Gichin Funakoshi and his son Yoshitaka Funakoshi, Ten No Kata means Kata of the heaven or universe. It gives it almost a divine quality, yet when you learn the kata, there aren't many "unique" techniques involved. The first half of the kata is attacking forwards, and the second half is defending backwards. I read a good point about this kata, that it's a kata that presents the question then the answer. There is an attack and there is a counter to said attack. Like I have stated though, this kata is very simple in terms of kata if you compare it to the likes of a Heian Kata or Bassai Dai or Unsu. However I stand by its a great kata to develop "perfect" technique but also develop "perfect" character of the Karate-Ka.
"Beauty lies in simplicity"
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